wildcrafted kousa dogwood woes

dirt_farmer(6)February 14, 2013

Hi,
I am trying to grow Kousa dogwood by starting inside.
I managed to get some wild crafted kousa seeds that I picked myself. However the kousa fruit may have been from a ornamental nursery specimen. I don't know if that matters or not as far as the fertility goes. I dormant-ed the seeds under low light and high moisture for a several months. I have what a believe to be one kousa seedling out of about 50 seeds.
I would post a pic but the seedling is too small to see anything.
Has anybody else had luck with these tree's ? And if so what is the trick ?

I'm not sure what you mean by low light, high moisture. Cornus Kousa (kousa dogwood) seed needs to be stratified. Best results will come if given a moist chill of approx 35-40F for 90 days before being brought to warmer (approx 70F) for germination. You can achieve that by sowing the seeds fresh and placing the pots outdoors (protected from rodents if necessary), or placing in a tiny zip lock with a tablespoon or two of moist, sterile medium like damp sand or damp vermiculite, dating the bag, placing it in your refrigerator for about three months. Then you can bring the bag out and sow the contents, vermiculite and all, save the space a pot would take that many weeks in the refrigerator.